Instead of a typical “Year in Review” post or series, I was planning on doing a quick post on the “Best wins” of 2010 for the Bucs. As I tried to go through them all and pick a few out to feature, however, I found it difficult to narrow 57 wins down to 10 or so (I enjoy EVERY victory), and since 57 is about as low a number of wins in a season as you’ll ever see…I figured “what the heck, I’ll just do a post about them all.”

To avoid an extremely long post that you certainly wouldn’t want to read all at once, I’m doing this in a separate installment for each month. Here is May’s. (April is here).

The Bucs improved to 6-1 in one-run games thanks to a 2-run shot by Ryan Church in the 6th inning to put them on top. That and opening day…Church’s only two positive contributions to the entire season?

Blowout city! In the Pirates’ favor! This was when the Bucs really started to establish their dominance (what?) over the Cubs in 2010. Brian Burres pitched well and the offense went nuts against Randy Wells and the Chicago bullpen.

4-0 against the hated Cubbies! This was that absolutely unreal game by Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones at Wrigley. Cutch went 5-for-5 with a HR, 2 SB, 2 RBI, and a walk. Jones went 5-for-6 with two huge game tying hits, plus a 3-run homer to give the Bucs the lead in the 8th.

Neil Walker made his 2010 debut with the Bucs that included a big RBI double to snap a 0-0 tie in the 8th (Maholm and Mike Leake had been dealing). Joel Hanrahan gave it back when Brandon Phillips hit a towering shot in the bottom of the inning to tie things back up, but Doumit played hero again with the winning homer in the top of the ninth.

After the rain cleared, it was a fun Memorial Day at PNC Park as the Bucs battled to an exciting victory over the suddenly inferior Cubbies. Ross Ohlendorf pitched a great game, Andy made a huge, spectacular defensive play at third to preserve a tie game late, and Bobby Crosby delivered the clutch go-ahead single in the bottom of the eighth.